Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility \u2014 your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. To get this in your inbox, sign up here for free \u2014 just click TechCrunch Mobility<\/a>!<\/p>\n Waymo<\/strong>\u2019s acceleration over the past 18 months is undeniable. The Alphabet-owned self-driving company now operates commercial robotaxi services in six markets, including the San Francisco Bay Area, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Austin, Atlanta, and Miami. It has plans to grow its fleet of driverless taxicabs this year to more than a dozen new cities internationally, including London and Tokyo.\u00a0<\/p>\n And now it has $16 billion<\/a> to fuel that expansion. Is it enough?\u00a0<\/p>\n Talking to a few industry watchers, the answer kept landing in the squishy \u201csort of\u201d and \u201cit depends\u201d territory.\u00a0<\/p>\n First the bull case. Alphabet is clearly committed to ensuring Waymo\u2019s success; the parent company is, and continues to be, the primary investor. Which means Waymo isn\u2019t exposed like other AV startups that suddenly lost funding after their backers (often legacy automakers) got skittish or pivoted.\u00a0<\/p>\n Its ridership and autonomous miles driven stats are also exploding and will likely continue in that trajectory unless it is derailed by regulators. (Waymo provides 400,000 rides every week across six major U.S. metropolitan areas, and in 2025 alone, it more than tripled its annual volume to 15 million rides.)<\/p>\n This doesn\u2019t guarantee success, though, especially if the gauge is set to profitability. Waymo still must solve several problems, including cost and increasing attention from regulators (the company\u2019s chief safety officer just testified in a Senate Commerce hearing<\/a>). If Waymo wants to simply be the licensor of its AV tech, it will have to move away from being the operator, which means giving up some control. That\u2019s hard with a nascent technology under scrutiny.<\/p>\n Techcrunch event<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBoston, MA<\/span> And while some of you will fight me on this, it also lacks the in-house manufacturing that Tesla<\/strong> has. Yes, Waymo has automotive partners. But it doesn\u2019t come with the same financial leverage or ability to drive down costs with scale.<\/p>\n Disagree? Send your argument to my email at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n The investors behind the now-defunct EV startup Canoo<\/strong> were always mysterious \u2014 in fact, they were only revealed as part of a lawsuit. Six years ago, I received a tip to look into one of them in particular: David Stern<\/strong>. He had connections to Prince Andrew but was otherwise a ghost.<\/p>\n He was on my mind, though, as the Department of Justice started releasing its files on Jeffrey Epstein<\/strong>. My curiosity as to whether he would turn up in the documents was quickly overwhelmed by the fact that he was, in fact, a close business partner of the convicted sex offender. He brought Epstein investment opportunities from around the world, and in particular, pitched him on investing in Faraday Future<\/strong>, Lucid Motors<\/strong>, and Canoo during the go-go days of mobility funding. Read my story<\/a> on Stern and Epstein\u2019s relationship and how mobility startups were once in the mix.<\/p>\n \u2014 Sean O\u2019Kane<\/em><\/p>\n Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at\u00a0<\/em>kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com<\/em><\/a>\u00a0or my Signal at kkorosec.07, or email Sean O\u2019Kane at\u00a0<\/em>sean.okane@techcrunch.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Autonomous vehicle technology is about more than just robotaxis \u2014 it is a difficult and costly business that only a handful of well-capitalized companies like Tesla,<\/strong> Waymo,<\/strong> and Zoox<\/strong> are pursuing. Many startup founders are applying the AV systems they\u2019ve developed to other use cases, including off-road defense, trucking, forklifts, mining, and construction. Investors, anxious about missing out on the AV party, are jumping into these sectors.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bedrock Robotics<\/strong> is the latest example of investor interest. The Silicon Valley autonomous vehicle technology startup, founded by veterans of Waymo and Segment, are developing a self-driving system that can be retrofitted onto construction equipment. And it just raised $270 million in Series B funding co-led by CapitalG and the Valor Atreides AI Fund. Other investors include Xora, 8VC, Eclipse, Emergence Capital, Perry Creek Capital, NVentures (Nvidia\u2019s venture capital arm), Tishman Speyer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Georgian, Incharge Capital, C4 Ventures, and others.<\/p>\n Bedrock raised more than $350 million in a short time (the company was formed in 2024). And while that might not seem like a lot compared to the size of some seed rounds in the AI labs sector, it shows money is flowing into physical AI startups. I expect more deal flow; importantly I expect the startups focused on practical applications of automated driving systems to attract talent \u2014 if they can afford them. Bedrock, for instance, hired Vincent Gonguet, who previously led AI safety and alignment at Meta for all Llama models, as its head of evaluation. It also hired John Chu away from Waymo.\u00a0<\/p>\n Keep an eye out for my interview with Bedrock Robotics co-founder and CEO Boris Sofman<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Other deals that got my attention this week \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n German electric motor maker Additive Drives<\/strong> raised \u20ac25 million<\/a> ($29.5 million) from Nordic Alpha Partners.<\/p>\n Autonomous underwater vehicles startup Apeiron Labs<\/strong> closed a $9.5 million<\/a> Series A round led by Dyne Ventures, RA Capital Management Planetary Health, and S2G Investments. Assembly Ventures, Bay Bridge Ventures, and TFX Capital participated.<\/p>\n GoCab<\/strong>, the African mobility fintech startup, raised a $45 million<\/a> financing round comprising $15 million in equity and $30 million in debt. The equity round was co-led by E3 Capital and Janngo Capital, with participation from KawiSafi Ventures and Cur8 Capital.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mitra EV<\/strong>, a commercial EV fleet company in Los Angeles, raised $27 million<\/a> in financing, including equity funding from lead investor Ultra Capital and a credit facility from S2G Investments.<\/p>\n Overland AI<\/strong>, a Seattle-based developer of self-driving systems designed for military operations, raised $100 million<\/a> in a round led by 8VC. Other investors included\u00a0Point72 Ventures, Ascend Venture Capital, Shasta Ventures, Overmatch Ventures, Valor Equity Partners, and StepStone Group.<\/p>\n Plug<\/strong>, the used EV marketplace, raised $20 million<\/a> in a Series A led by Lightspeed with participation from Galvanize and existing investors Autotech Ventures, Leap Forward Ventures, and Renn Global.\u00a0<\/p>\n R3 Robotics<\/strong>, a European startup that wants to automate the disassembly of EV systems at scale, raised \u20ac20 million<\/a> ($23.6 million) in combination of grants and venture funding. The \u20ac14 million ($16.5 million) Series A funding was co-led by HG Ventures and Suma Capital. Oetker Collection, the European Innovation Council Fund (EIC Fund), and existing shareholders, including BONVENTURE, FlixFounders, and EIT Urban Mobility also participated.\u00a0<\/p>\n Skyryse<\/strong>, an El Segundo, California-based aviation automation startup, has raised more than $300 million<\/a> in a Series C investment. The round, led by Autopilot Ventures, pushes its valuation to $1.15 billion. Other investors include Fidelity Management & Research Company, ArrowMark Partners, Atreides Management LP, BAM Elevate, Baron Capital Group, Durable Capital Partners, Positive Sum, Qatar Investment Authority, RCM Private Markets Fund managed by Rokos Capital Management, and Woodline Partners.<\/p>\n China<\/strong> has banned<\/a> concealed electronically actuated door handles popularized by Tesla. The ruling, published by China\u2019s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, says all new cars sold in the country must have mechanical releases on their door handles by January 1, 2027. There is chatter that Europe could soon follow.\u00a0<\/p>\n Uber<\/strong> continues to make moves designed to make it competitive in the autonomous vehicle sector. The company has promoted<\/a> Balaji Krishnamurthy<\/strong>, its VP of strategic finance and investor relations, to be its CFO. This may not seem connected to AVs, but it is. Krishnamurthy actively promotes the company\u2019s autonomous ride-hailing partnerships and has a board seat at AV company Waabi. During the company\u2019s Q4 call, he talked about AVs, saying the company would invest capital in its AV software partners, work with AV makers by investing equity or via offtake agreements, and \u201csupport our AV infrastructure partners.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, a high-profile lawsuit against Uber<\/strong> has delivered a mixed verdict for the ride-hailing company, which was sued after a woman alleged she was raped by her Uber driver in November 2023. A jury determined Uber was liable as an apparent agent of the driver and awarded $8.5 million to the plaintiff. The jury rejected claims that Uber was liable for negligence or design defects and declined to award punitive damages. An Uber spokesperson, who emailed TechCrunch a statement, said the \u201cverdict affirms that Uber acted responsibly and has invested meaningfully in rider safety. We will continue to put safety at the heart of everything we do.\u201d Uber plans to appeal the decision.\u00a0<\/p>\n Last week in our newsletter, we did a poll asking what the name or ticker of Elon Musk<\/strong>\u2019s combined supercompany should be. Thanks to those who emailed their suggestions, many of which had space themes, like Galactic X (great one). As for the poll, the majority picked plain ol\u2019 X.\u00a0<\/p>\n That makes sense, considering Musk has often talked, and posted, about X, the everything app. About 50% voted for X, while 20.7% picked ELON, 17.2% selected SpaceAI, and 12.1% chose K2, a reference to one of the corporate entities<\/a> created in January.\u00a0<\/p>\n My pick? I think it will ultimately be X, and the company will include more than just SpaceX and xAI.<\/p>\n To participate in our polls, sign up for our newsletter<\/a>!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJune 23, 2026<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\nA little bird<\/h2>\n
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Deals!<\/h2>\n
![\"money](\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/money-the-station.png?w=680\")
Notable reads and other tidbits<\/h2>\n
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One more thing \u2026<\/h2>\n